A Sketch of the Geology of Leicestershire & Rutland (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ...of a fish, named Hybodus. It is of a light-brown hue, 4 inches long, and the exterior surface beautifully fluted. Teeth also of Hybodus, Acrodus, &c. occur. The most frequent fossil, however, is the little crustacean before named, Estheria minuta; this.str0ngly resemblesa small bivalve shell, and is covered with delicate markings. Every here and there calcareous nodules occur in the sandstone, which when broken up frequently yield this interesting fossil, which is not more than a quarter of an inch in diameter. In these marly lumps we have evidence of the little brackish pools along an ancient seashore, just such a habitat as the living Estheriae rejoice in. Obscure vegetable remains also occur, probably Echinostacllys oblongus. Traces of Voltzia are found, and a cast of the spreading leaves of this shrub impressed on red marl is the only fossil which the latter rock has yielded to our search in this county. Black carbonaceous markings darken the surface of the sandstone beds here and there, probably the result of the decay of seaweeds. Curious spottings, due to a trace of manganese, also abound. The surface of many of the marly beds is covered with markings, usually described as worm-tracks. It''Iany of them are no doubt the galleries of boring-worms, which have been filled in with sand, ane then a cast of them taken, as it were, by the bed deposited upon them. The marks of eddies, ripples, &c., are especially striking, and the whole deposit was evidently a littoral one. Pseudomorphic casts of salt crystals also occur, but we have never found them on the precise horizon of the Estberia. In the extreme west ofLeiceatershire, at Orton-on-the-Hill, there is a thin bed of sandstone in the Red Maris, which is probably lower in...